Causes

Here are just a few examples of how we are currently working to accomplish our great underlying mission -to becoming a global platform for good.

Cause -Stand up 4 Rhinos with Care For Wild

When our friend and Community Contributor Brittany Parker approached us with this beautiful new cause, we immediately knew that we wanted to help spread awareness regarding these great animals and their dwindling populations. But also back this admirable effort by creating some all new cause based apparel as well. So with that, be on the look out for an all new design from non other than yours truly. A portion of the proceeds from this specific design will be going directly to our friends over at Stand Up for Rhinos in order to help them reach their goals with Care For Wild! Below we have included an article directly from Brittany Parker's blog that we wanted to share with you all.

Pacing back and forth in the living room, cell phone pressed firmly to my ear I was wrestling with one feeling we are all familiar with…fear. On the other end was a concerned friend and mentor. His advice played to the fear even more,

“This isn’t a jab at your abilities but you’re probably going to swim the entire thing. You’ll take some sweet picture of you dropping into a rapid that you probably won’t clean. I don’t believe any paddler could successfully paddle the Zambezi River. It’s gnarly—those rapids are huge.”

I knew he was right. When I was invited on this trip to be one of the first to attempt the mighty Zambezi River on a SUP I went through four stages of emotions: excitement to the point of shaking, overwhelmed with a motivation to do everything in my power to make this happen, doubt in my abilities, and then the ever crippling fear.

By the end of the phone call I was 90% decided I wasn’t going on this trip. The thoughts of violent crocodile attacks and possibility of long hold-downs were overwhelming. But still, despite these feelings (of which I was keeping almost entirely to myself) Nadia and I pushed forward with our proposals to make this trip happen.

We only had two weeks to raise the money.Often times, when I’ve gone to sponsors on such short notice, the response is always the same.

“This sounds awesome, we wish we could help, but it’s just too short of notice and our budget is being used elsewhere.” Fair enough. I thought, why would this be any different? Within two days of sending out our proposals we were fully funded. Nadia called me, ecstatic! “We’re going to Africa!!”

Photographer: Heather Jackson

In that moment, all of those fears and doubts went away. The world seemed to open up in that moment, ripe with possibility and I was in total shock and awe.

I’ve proposed many adventures in the past and what always seemed to be lacking in those proposals was purpose. There’s something about gong to a company, that’s already hard up for cash, and asking them to fund this awesome paddling adventure that they’ll get some sweet social media shots out of the deal. It just never felt right.

This trip is different. This trip has a cause, I’m throwing myself down one of the most notoriously rowdy rivers to save the rhinos. That’s right, rhinos. What does stand up paddling have to do with rhinos? Nothing really. The point is that this attempt to paddle the Zambezi is so nuts (the craziest thing I’ve ever agreed to do) that it’s bound to get some attention. Our mission is to use that attention and direct it towards something bigger—the poaching crisis in South Africa.

Our friends at RAW Adrenaline have created a campaign with the NPO Care for Wild called Stand Up 4 Rhinos. We hope that all the content around this descent shared by our sponsors will inspire people to donate to this cause and help us meet our goal of $10,000.

All we need is 1,000 people to donate $10!!! That’s one and a half cocktails!!! That $10 can have a huge impact in the preservation of an entire species. Care for Wild takes in and cares for baby rhinos that have been orphaned due to poaching. These offspring are the future of this species. With the Northern White Rhino species nearly extinct, with one male and two females left, both incapable of reproduction we may witness this species go extinct within the next two years. Please let’s not let this happen to the Southern White Rhino.

Follow me on my Instagram @bp.surfs and facebook (https://www.facebook.com/brittany.parker.52012). Everyday, Nadia and I will be doing LIVE Facebook broadcasts from our accounts to give you regular updates on our adventure. So be sure to keep checking back!

"Every 90 seconds a woman dies due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth, every 10 seconds a newborn dies during delivery, or within the first 28 days of birth.

Most of these deaths occur in low-resource settings without a Skilled Birth Attendant, and could have been prevented with simple interventions. Studies show that the greatest burden of maternal and perinatal mortality is clustered around the time of birth, with the majority of deaths occurring within the first 24 hours after delivery.

One Heart World-Wide (OHW) is a 501(c)(3) organization with over 15 years of experience implementing maternal and neonatal mortality prevention programs in areas where women often die alone at home giving birth. Their aim is to improve access to, and utilization of healthcare services to reduce the risk of maternal and neonatal mortality in the most remote, rural areas. The people of OHW believe that all women and newborns can receive the quality healthcare services they deserve during pregnancy and childbirth, anytime and anyplace".

When the earthquakes hit in the spring of 2015, we knew it was time to get involved. Shortly after we decided that we would start a cause based line of clothing in order to help people in these very situations. Once we started looking into organizations to partner up with on this new project, it was then that we were put in contact with One Heart World Wide. And once we became educated on their mission regarding women and newborns, we immediately knew that they were the organization we wanted to focus our efforts in support of. It was then that our Cause Based line of clothing was born. And with a very successful first run, we were able to sponsor 4 Nepalese women and provide the full funds to have their medical education completely paid for. Now trained and educated these women can provide prenatal & postnatal care, deliver babies, and educate their villages properly regarding childbirth so that women and children truly have a great chance of survival.